The present invention relates generally to mobile telephones, and more specifically to a system for controlling a multi-mode, multi-band mobile telephone via a single hardware and software man machine interface (MMI).
Mobile telephone air interface standards such as Telecommunications Industry Association/Electronics Industry Alliance Interim Standards 54 and 136 (TIA/EIA54 and TIA/EIA-136), Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), Telecommunications Industry Association Code Division Multiple Access Interim Standard 95 (CDMA IS-95 or CDMA), GSM/ANSI-41 Interoperability Trial Standard TIA/EIA-41 (GAIT), and the like require support by specific operating systems or protocol stacks, each presenting a functionality specific to the corresponding standard and the technologies applied within those standards. This functionality finds its final representation in the MMI software employed by the telephone, which presents the functionality to the user. Different scopes of functionality typically induce different behavior, and often require the use of different software in the MMI. Where such specific software is used for different standards or modes, specific hardware (e.g. specific hard keys, displays, and the like) may be required. Alternately, redundant MMI software may be provided, increasing the need for added general hardware (e.g. memory, processors, and the like) and increasing complexity to the user. Moreover, since mobile telephones are increasingly providing MMIs providing applications such as organizers, email clients, Internet browsers, and the like, such MMIs can occupy a substantial portion of the telephone's memory compared with other of the telephone's software modules. Thus, in order to provide a multiple mode mobile telephone capable using multiple standards, a substantial portion of the telephone's memory must be dedicated to storage of software providing multiple MMIs. Further, it is normally desirable that only one instance of a particular application be provided by the MMI of the telephone.
Consequently, it is desirable to provide a mobile telephone supporting multiple air interface standards, each capable of supporting multiple bands, through a single MMI, thus abstracting the complexity of the system from the user and enabling the use of a single hardware interface.